The Kindergarten Playground
by Squilkey
Summary: Scott is reduced to spending recess alone...but he can't help but interfere with what looks like a bullying situation.


Scott was in second grade, and the first day of second grade was already worse than all of first grade combined, and that included the time he and Stiles both threw up during lunch and had to lie in the nurses office all day.

There was one person to blame for Scott's hatred of second grade, and her name was Lydia. Lydia had moved to Beacon Hills over the summer and had joined their class for the new school year. Scott hadn't batted an eye lash at her arrival, but Stiles was another story. For whatever strange reason, Scott's best friend had decided he was now in love with the new girl. The new girl whom he had known for all of five minutes.

The fact that Stiles was now in love with Lydia, had meant Scott was spending the first recess as a second grader alone. Stiles had moved places in the classroom to sit next to Lydia, he sat next to her for arts and crafts, and now he was following her around the playground during break. This left Scott sitting by the back fence of the playground, scribbling in the dirt with his finger.

The fence he was using to support his back was separating his grade from kindergarten. He could hear the screams of joy coming from the lot, and it was dampening his mood. Scott twisted himself around, trying to see why the kindergarteners were having so much fun, he knew for a fact that the kindergarten playground was ten times worse than the upper playground.

Most of the kids were mindlessly running in circles, chasing after each other (Scott had to admit that looked a lot more fun than what he was doing at the moment). He scanned the playground, not really looking, just trying to distract himself. It was then that Scott spotted something that he knew was wrong.

There was a quite large six year old facing another six year old, though the second one was half the size. The big one was shoving the smaller one, who was stumbling backwards and trying to stay on his feet. Scott frowned, if school had taught him anything it was that it was not okay to push, hit, kick, or bite other people.

Scott pulled himself up to his feet, and stood on his toes to see over the fence. He had a better view of the commotion, but it didn't make him feel better in the slightest. He looked around for a playground monitor, were teachers not going to stop the big kid?

He looked back over to the situation, the smaller kid was now lying on his back, the bully towering over, foot daringly close to the kid's face. Scott shifted nervously and looked behind himself, no one was watching him. He used all of his strength and heaved himself over the fence. When his feet had landed on the other side, he cautiously made it over to the scene.

The kid had a terrified expression on his face, Scott noticed the bully was talking.

"I know you're new here, but you're not allowed to bully at school," the words left Scott's mouth before he even realised he was saying them. He immediately regretted it, it was what he wanted to say, but the bully was almost the size of him.

"It's not bullying," the kid argued back, glaring at Scott. Scott frowned, maybe he had misinterpreted the situation.

"Maybe you should let him up then," Scott reasoned, pointing at the kid on the floor. The big kid paused for a second, staring at Scott. After a minute of reflection, he reached down and pulled the little boy up to his feet. The smaller kid smiled weakly, Scott smiled back. He moved to apologise but before he could, the big kid had shoved the other so hard, he was back on the ground, tears pooling in his eyes.

Scott scowled, his fists bawled up. "You said you weren't bullying," he said through gritted teeth.

"You're not a teacher, I don't need to listen to you," the other retorted, kicked dirt on the kid on the ground.

"Stop doing that!" Scott stepped forward, his finger nails digging into his palms.

"Or what? You'll hurt me?" The kid stepped forward and pushed Scott, that was it. Scott jumped on him, slamming him down to the ground, punching him square in the jaw. The smaller boy watched in horror, scrambling back from the fight.

Scott pulled himself off the boy, glaring down. He turned towards the kid being bullied. "Are you okay?" The boy nodded weakly. Scott held out his hand, the boy flinched. "I didn't want to hurt him," Scott explained, "I don't hurt people really, I swear." The boy nodded again, accepting Scott's hand. A tear streamed down the little boy's cheek as he got to his feet. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"He called me a freak," the boy hiccuped, wiping his nose. Scott was about to ask why, when a teacher started yelling. Two ladies approached Scott and the two kindergarteners.

"What happened?" One of them exclaimed, rushing over to the boy who was on the ground.

"He called him a freak and pushed him down!" Scott defended.

"Did you punch him? Are you even in kindergarten?" Scott shook his head, hanging it low.

"He saved me!" The little boy chimed in, chocking on a sob.

"You're all going to have to come with me to the principal's office, let's go!" Scott and the kid he rescued followed the first teacher, while the bully lagged behind with the other, probably telling lies about what happened. They were seated outside the principal's office and told to stay put until the principal came to get them.

"I'm Scott," he offered, turning to the little boy next to him.

"Liam." Scott smiled and turned back to look at the door. "Are we going to get 'pelled?" Liam was tearing up again. Scott frowned.

"What's spelled?"

"When you can't go to school no more," Liam explained, rubbing his eyes.

"No, I got in trouble last year and they just told me rules and stuff." Scott turned to Liam, who nodded and sniffed. "Why'd he call you a freak?"

"'Cause I could 'pell all the words in 'pelling," Liam explained, choking on a sob. Scott frowned.

"That's just bein' smart, not bein' a freak," Scott explained, trying to make Liam feel better. Liam gave him a half hearted smile.

They had to sit outside the office for the rest of recess and some of class time. Scott was just about to fall asleep from boredom when he saw his parents walking down the hall, he jumped out of his seat.

"Mom? Dad?"

"Scott, they said you were fighting! We talked about this last year!" Scott recognised the hint of disappointment in his mothers tone and bowed his head.

"I didn't mean to! I didn't want to! He hit me first and then—" Melissa let out a cry while Scott was in mid-sentence.

"Was this the kid you were hitting?" She exclaimed, rushing to Liam, who was trying to sink down in his chair.

"No!" Scott argued, crossing his arms over his chest defensively. With that word, the principal's office door swung open. They were all filed in, but had to wait until Liam's mom, and the other boy's parents got there, which took way too long for Scott's liking.

When they were all there, Scott was asking to share his side of the story, then Liam, and then the other boy. Scott hoped his and Liam's side would beat out the other boy's, as it was two against one. The boy's were then retold all of the school's rules against fighting and bullying.

Liam was excused back to class first, as he hadn't actually hurt anyone, therefore he hadn't broken any rules.

The big boy was still refusing to admit that he had pushed Scott or Liam, which made it very difficult for Scott's story to make sense. They continued arguing for almost half an hour before the principal decided to give them both warnings for the fight. The boy was excused back to class, but Scott was not.

"Scott, you're aware that this is your second offence with violence at this school?" Scott nodded. "You also broke a rule by climbing a fence and going into the lower playground." Scott nodded again, having learned not to argue back, even if he wanted to really badly. "I don't care if this boy was hurting someone, the answer is never violence, you tell someone, you do not hit back." Scott was getting annoyed, he had just listened to the speech. "I am letting you off with one more warning, but if anything more happens, we're going to be talking suspension." Scott's parents were staring daggers at him, he hung his head.

He was thankful he still had class, as his parents couldn't yell at him for another hour after being dismissed back to class.

Stiles jumped from his seat when he saw Scott coming back into the classroom, he beckoned him over. "What happened?" He whispered. "You've been gone forever!" Scott smiled slightly at his friends recognition of absence. He promised to tell him everything after school.

When school ended, Stiles begged for the story, but Scott had other things on his mind. He made his way to the kindergarten classrooms, waiting for the kids to exit. He caught Liam, wearing an oversized backpack that weighed him down greatly.

"I'm sorry for getting you in trouble," Scott apologised, pulling Liam away from the crowd.

"You didn't, you saved my life, like superman," Liam stared at Scott with awe in his eyes. Scott smiled as he noticed superman was printed on Liam's backpack.

"Not really, but tell me if he bugs you again, it's not dobbing 'cause I'm not a grown-up." Liam nodded, seeming satisfied with that answer. Scott walked Liam to the carpool lane and didn't leave until Liam had been picked up.


End file.
